UPC DECT Phone

Gadgetman496

Any recommendations for good digital phones that are known to work with UPC Broadband?

Solair

The UPC phone service is delivered over an analogue port on the back of the router. For all intents and purposes, it's identical to any other analogue phone service e.g. eircom's POTS service.

The only difference is that instead of your voice being converted into a digital signal at an eircom exchange somewhere in your area, that happens in the router in your living room instead.

Just plug *ANY* Irish phone into phone port 1 on the back of the router and you will get a dial tone and it will work.

The only thing it does not support is pulse-dialing. So, basically you can't use ancient 1960s phones with rotary dials, but anything else is absolutely fine as long as it's a regular tone-dialing phone.

Pick your DECT phone based on what features you want on it. The fact that it's connected to a UPC cable phone service makes no difference.

Most of them will also support features like Caller ID on call waiting etc, so if you've caller ID enabled, you'll know who is calling you, rather than just hearing the beep-beep noise.

If you buy a phone that comes with a BT (UK type) plug (i.e. most phones sold in Argos for example) on the phone line, you can usually swap the line cord for an Irish RJ11 to RJ11 cord. If that doesn't work, use the original cord + a BT adaptor.

Also, if you want to use the phone sockets in your house, just ensure that the main incoming eircom line is actually physically disconnected from your internal wiring. Then just plug an RJ11 to RJ11 (standard phone cord) from your UPC box to any phone point in the house (use a double adapter if you need the socket) and you'll have UPC phone service and dial tone at all your phone sockets!

If you've any ancient phones (early 1980s or older) still set in pulse mode, make sure you switch them to tone dialing. Eircom's exchanges accept tone or pulse, but UPC's routers can only understand tone dialing.

vibe666

it actually didn't work with an old BT dect phone i used to have (with or without the BT adapter) even though it had worked previously on my old POTS line, but i was told that it would only be some very old dect handsets that are no longer made any more and that was about 8-9 years ago now, so i doubt you have anything to worry about if you buy one now.

Solair

vibe666 wrote: »

it actually didn't work with an old BT dect phone i used to have (with or without the BT adapter) even though it had worked previously on my old POTS line, but i was told that it would only be some very old dect handsets that are no longer made any more and that was about 8-9 years ago now, so i doubt you have anything to worry about if you buy one now.

That's weird as electrically, it's just a 2-wire phone service, exactly the same as Eircom's.

Was the old BT phone set to pulse dialing or something?

vibe666

no, it was a touch tone phone. at the time, they said that it was something to do with it not being compatible with a digital line, but that could have been guff, who knows.

i still had my original pots line at the time and i tried it back in that and it was still working, but nothing i did would get it working on the upc modem which was a shame cos it was a decent phone.

Solair

The problem is quite likely that the BT handset that you were using does not comply with European Telecommunication Standards Institute standards TBR 21 (and updates to that) and EN 301 437 and was built specifically for use with the BT analogue telephone network.

EN 301 437 is a set of standard that must be complied with by modern telephones, modems, faxes, or anything to be connected to the public telephone network in Europe.

Basically, it sets out a range of different standards (line voltages, ringing voltages, Caller ID protocols, voice signal characteristics) that must be capable of being understood and worked with by the phone. It also sets out a standardised 2-wire interface i.e. the standard Irish-style RJ11 phone plug with the line carried on the centre two contacts.

The idea was to make it easier for manufactures to produce a single device that would work everywhere across the European market, wherever it's plugged in.

So, if you buy a modern handset that is complaint with EN 301 437 (as almost all are nowadays) it will work on BT, eircom, UPC, France Telecom, Deutche Telecom, Telefonica.. as well as a range of ISDN, VoIP and other terminal adapters, office phone systems (PABXs) etc etc the only difference will be the plug on one end of the line cord might be a legacy local standard instead of RJ11 e.g. BT plug, French one etc.

UPC's phone service complies with ETSI and Irish standards so, any phone that was sold in Ireland should work on it.

Some eircom lines can pose problems for old BT phones too btw and some old BT phones can't cope with eircom or UPC Caller ID as the BT specification is quite different.

Basically, you're using a foreign-spec handset with an Irish spec line, so it may/may not work.

If you get a modern DECT phone, I would avoid BT-branded stuff tbh as they are definitely not intended for export outside the UK. Stick with Siemens, Philips, Panasonic etc or something like that.